We're proud to announce the immediate availability of the first two component of our new Client Access system; themes and contact forms.
Themes
These themes let you design the look and feel of the various Client Access pages. You'll really appreciate this feature when the full Client Access suite is released, as you won't have to configure the design elements of each and every section. Instead, you set that up once and re-use it later.
Besides configuring the page colors, the basic editor includes the ability to upload two graphics; a header image and a footer image. The advanced editor lets your webmaster add your own CSS and HTML though, which means the sky's the limit when it comes to the design of your themes.
Using the advanced configuration options, you can easily copy and paste the HTML source code from your existing website into your theme with very few, if any, changes. We find it best to create a very basic theme initially and then wait to work with the advanced configuration until after you've created a contact form that uses the theme. That way, you can make a change, save, and reload your contact form to see your changes immediately.
Contact Forms
The first release of the contact form lets you customize the messages and the text of the form fields. You can even choose which job types to display (if any at all).
As illustrated on the Táve Studio Manager registration form, these contact forms are hosted at StudioContact.net and use the code you set up for your studio. If your studio code needs to be updated, please email support. All contact form links will have to be updated if your studio code changes (including search engines), so we highly suggest that you only request that the alias be changed if your company name has changed and the old one is truly inappropriate.
You can also have your new lead emails go to separate email addresses for each form. The forms default to your main studio email address.
If you don't let the user select the type of job they're inquiring about, you have to select what job type to assign to new leads from the form. If you have separate forms for weddings and portraits, you could assume what the job type will be or customize the list to only relevant types. If you look at Karen Lisa's contact form, you'll see she has one generic event option and then multiple specific portrait types. Remember that you can add or customize your job types inside the Settings section under Custom Fields.
We'll be revamping the custom fields with completely custom options later, so you'll be able to ask any question you want on your contact form.
Separate brands; separate pages
Many of the studios using Táve Studio Manager have more than one brand associated with their business. A common example is having a portrait photography brand and a separate wedding photography brand.
Since we let you create multiple pages and themes, you can have your websites link to separate forms that mimic the look and feel of the website the user was browsing. To illustrate that, here are the Táve powered contact forms for Karen Lisa's wedding and portrait brands:
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Up Next...
As I mentioned at the start of this entry, this is only the first release targeting the Client Access system. Soon you'll be able to invite clients to update their own job information, pay a balance, or even book a session online (and those are just the features we're willing to talk about!).
Have feedback? Be sure to join and participate in the user forum, which can be accessed by clicking on the forum link on the top right of Táve Studio Manager.
